The Disparate Impact Of Hiring Practices

Matt Simpson's article "The Disparate Impact of Hiring Practices" was featured in The Corporate Counselor on February 2016.

In a first-of-its-kind decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit deferred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and held that job applicants may bring "disparate impact" claims for age discrimination against potential employers, even in the absence of evidence of intentional discrimination. In Villarreal v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 806 F.3d 1288 (11th 2015), the court additionally held that the statute of limitations for filing a charge with the EEOC may be tolled in such cases.

This ruling marks departures from the statutory language of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) as well as Supreme Court dicta interpreting the Act. Most...